Blind

Kennedy glanced out the shop window, her one green eye and one hazel eye watching the gathered thunderheads warily. The large storm system had moved in a few days ago and had yet to move away. The power in her studio had gone out so many times over the past few days that she had left as much of the electricity off as she could.

As the person in front of her moved out of line, Kennedy stepped forward and set the basket on the counter. There had to be at least two dozen sets of candles in the basket as well as extra batteries and some other food. The storm system had made day look like night and night, well, darker. With the electricity shorting out every two or three hours, Kennedy was relying on the candles and flashlight.

She tossed a few bills onto the counter as payment before grabbing the bag and walking out. No rain had fallen yet but that wasn’t to say that it wouldn’t come soon. The clouds were saturated with it and the moisture was getting to her hair. The humidity was almost unbearable.

Kennedy stepped out onto the sidewalk, hefted the bag to a better adjustment and began the ten minute walk back to her studio. She moved at a quick pace, faster than she probably should on the rain-slicked concrete while wearing heeled boots, as to avoid the impending rain fall. She didn’t like the thought of getting caught in the rain for the second time in four days.

She turned down an alleyway to save the extra minute or two of circling the block only to pause as she did so. A low groan came from further down the alley though she couldn’t pinpoint the location. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know what was down the alley.

A large bolt of lightning illuminated the sky overhead and Kennedy cursed. She was half-tempted to pull the Beretta from the waistband of her pants but hesitated. There was no need to make herself a target.

Still, she moved carefully, mismatched eyes sweeping the alley slowly, ever so slowly. She wasn’t worried about getting hurt, she was more concerned with someone sneaking up on her. And even more than that, she was worried about getting caught in the potential torrent of rain hanging precariously overhead.

At first, she didn’t see the man. She would have missed him if she hadn’t almost tripped over one of his extended legs. As it was, she noticed at the last minute and managed to pull herself up short.

The man was slumped against the wall, his long black hair pushed back from his face haphazardly. There was an almost sallow look to his skin, making him look older, sickly almost. There were bruise-like marks beneath his eyes and a thin sheen of sweat on his skin.

Kennedy was sure that the sweat came from the slight fact that he was wearing an outfit that looked like it was comprised entirely of leather. She was wearing leather pants as well as a leather vest at the moment but even she wasn’t sweating. At least, she hoped she wasn’t sweating.

He didn’t look like the average bum though. Besides the sickly complexion and sweat, he was well-groomed and dressed nicely. She couldn’t imagine having seen anyone like him around here.

Another flash of lightning made everything glow and Kennedy noticed the way he flinched. His eyes slid open to stare up at the dark, angry clouds overhead. And then they landed on her.

They were a beautiful shade of emerald green and she could see why he had used the green leather in his outfit. His stare was unnerving though. And Kennedy, who was a master at blank, unnerving stares, found herself wanting to look away. The little voice in her head told her to run, now.

Like an idiot, she stayed.

“Can I call someone for you?” she asked, feeling foolish even as she asked the question.

The question brought a pained smirk to his lips though.

“I do not think that you have what I need to make a call,” he murmured, even his accent different from any she had heard.

“It’s going to rain soon. Is there somewhere you can stay?”

“I fear not. There’s not even a sizeable box in this alley.”

He would need a fairly large box by Kennedy’s estimations. Though she had yet to see him standing, she was safe in guessing that he was at least six feet tall. Even with a refrigerator box he would probably be crowded in there.

“I can take you back to my place for a few hours,” Kennedy said, ignoring the voice screaming inside of her head.

“It would be a most appreciated gesture,” he responded as thunder cracked overhead.

Something like fear bloomed in his eyes, causing him to cast his gaze skyward. Though she found it slightly amusing, Kennedy made no remark about his apparent fear of the oncoming storm. For several seconds the man’s green eyes watched in apprehension as the sky visibly darkened and lightning forked through the clouds.

“I really wouldn’t like to get caught in the rain,” Kennedy muttered as she extended her hand.

The man’s slender, long-fingered hands grasped hers firmly and Kennedy shifted her weight to help pull him up. It was like trying to lift a damn car engine without any help. After a few seconds he began to rise though she guessed that it was probably through some of his own power and not hers.

He was taller than she had expected as well. With her heels, Kennedy’s nose barely reached above his shoulders. Blinking, she looped her arm around his back as he draped his arm across her shoulders. She cast one more hurried glance at the sky before walking down the alley.

The stranger’s long strides allowed him to match Kennedy’s faster and shorter strides easily. She could tell that something was paining him though. Through his heavy clothing she could feel when his flinched if her hand brushed against a certain part on his back. Just in case he turned into some raging psychopath, Kennedy tucked that little nugget of information away.

They were maybe a block away from her building when the clouds broke and rain flooded out. It was blinding and shortened her vision to within just a few feet. The fat drops stung at her exposed arms and face as she ushered along the tall man with slightly faster strides.

Thunder boomed overhead once more and, once again, he flinched. She caught the way his head turned towards the skies, watching for something but nothing appeared. Still, she could feel all the muscles in his body tensing in preparation for something. Kennedy wondered how long it would take her to draw the gun before he could do something to her.

Before anything happened, however, they were under the awning over her building and then inside. The tape had been removed from the elevator doors and as Kennedy glanced up, the doors slid open slowly. Two or three people walked out, umbrellas at the ready.

Their eyes slid towards Kennedy, glancing up and down her ragged and soaked form. She returned the unwelcomed gazes with a blank, unblinking one of her own. The stare down lasted for only a few minutes before the small group hurried on out through the door.

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s eyes flicked between the stairwell door and the elevator. She could half-carry, half-drag the man who weighed as much as car engine up eight flights of stairs or she could risk getting stuck in the elevator for hours on end if the power went out. In the end, comfortable ease won out over sensibility.

While leaning against the side of the elevator, her eyes watched the man. One slender hand grasped the railing that circled the elevator and the other rested on his back. His forehead was pressed to the dirty and dimly reflective surface. From what she could see, his eyes were shut.

Quietly, she shifted her weight and position so that her hand was resting on her hip. From there, she was closer to reaching the gun tucked into her waistband. Firing it into the elevator would be far from the smartest thing that she had ever done but Kennedy didn’t care. He could still go beserk on her at the last second.

There was a weak, faint ding and the elevator slowed before coming to a shaking halt on her floor. She resumed her position at his side before helping him limp out of the elevator and to her studio. As she was turning the key in the door, Kennedy’s eyes lifted to the ceiling. The few dim lights in the hallway flickered off then, signifying that the power had gone out.

With a roll of her eyes, she shoved the heavy steel door open with her shoulder. She helped the stranger over to the couch before returning to close the door. Out of curiosity, she flicked the light switch just to ensure that the power was indeed out. It was.

Swallowing a stream of curses, she set the bag of candles and other various items down on the coffee table. She’d worry about setting them up later. Getting out of the damp clothing that clung to her body was more important to her at the moment. It would take some time to slide the leather pants off of her legs as well.

Kennedy walked across the studio to her ‘bedroom’, unzipping the leather vest as she did. The leather had just slid past her shoulders when she hesitated. A low growl from the Rottweiler stretched out on her bed had her turning while simultaneously drawing the gun tucked into her waistband.

The muzzle of the gun was mere inches from the chest of the emerald-eyed stranger. The man’s eyebrows quirked upwards slightly as a thin-lipped smirk stretched across his face. Kennedy thumbed the safety off, her mismatched eyes never leaving his face.

His hands rose a few inches in an “I-mean-no-harm” gesture as he took a few steps back. She didn’t lower the gun by a centimeter. She managed to resist looking at the door to judge how close they both stood to it. She hadn’t turned the numerous locks into place which mean that all she had to do was get the door open. But he was standing maybe twenty-feet from the door. She was at least thirty away and she would still have to throw open the steel door.

“So, this is how you repay help?” Kennedy asked.

“I never asked for your help, my dear,” he smiled though he didn’t look away from her either.

“And yet you’re inside, safe from the beasty out there in the rain,” Kennedy replied.

His eyes darkened then. Realizing that she may have crossed into dangerous territory, Kennedy’s eyes flicked towards the door now. If she could fire off a couple shots, she’d be safe. She just didn’t want to explain the strange-looking dead man on the floor.

“Move, now,” Kennedy growled, gesturing with the gun in the direction he should move.

He took a few steps in the direction that she had gestured to, his green eyes never leaving hers. Kennedy shifted and took a few steps to her left until she was between him and the door. Here she felt safer.

“Now, who are you?”

He shifted and the muzzle of the gun lifted, the sights lining up between his eyes. Again, his hands rose in the same gesture but Kennedy didn’t lower the gun. Already she was regretting even walking down that alley.

“I don’t feel particularly comfortable trading niceties with a gun pointed at my head,” he replied smoothly, still watching her.

“Tough luck. Suck it up and deal,” Kennedy growled. “Who are you?”

Thunder cracked overhead once more and his eyes rose to the ceiling as if he expected something to erupt through it. She could hear the patter of rain on the window panes and it was rapidly growing darker and darker outside. She needed to get the candles lit before she couldn’t see anything.

“I am Loki, the rightful king of Asgard.”

One of Kennedy’s black eyebrows rose slightly in question. Her chin lifted, fingers adjusting around the grip of the Beretta.

“Yeah, I’m calling the cops,” she muttered. “Don’t move or we’ll see how comfortable you are with a bullet between your eyes.”

Loki just smiled a tight-lipped smile but said nothing. Dropping one hand from the gun, Kennedy made her way over to where her phone laid on the end table. If he made a break for the door she might be able to get off one or two shots before he reached it. She didn’t want to explain the possibly dead, possibly injured man on her floor but she would if she had to.

“If I may,” he began, not moving but to turn his head and watch her, “why do you carry a loaded gun, hidden on your person as well, with you?”

“It’s a dangerous neighborhood,” Kennedy lied as she picked up the phone.

“Yes, the woman with her newborn infant two doors down is quite the threat,” Loki smirked, green eyes glittering.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?” Kennedy snarled, mismatched eyes narrowing in a glare.

“I believe that you told me not to move, not to shut up.”

Baring her teeth in an ill-tempered snarl, Kennedy punched the number for the police into the phone. At this point, she was half-tempted to empty the entire magazine of the Beretta into his chest.

“I wonder how you might explain the small arsenal you have here. I don’t think it’s normal example of mortal decorum to have an assault rifle lying on one’s table.”

Kennedy ignored him as she finished dialing the police’s number. She held the phone to her ear, mismatched eyes watching Loki. She didn’t lower the gun an inch as the first ring echoed in her ear.

The sound of knuckles rapping on the steel door startled Kennedy though she was slightly pleased to find that Loki started, if not a little less noticeably, as well. Grinding her teeth, Kennedy ended the call but kept the gun in hand as she moved over to the door.

For a quick instant, she turned her back on Loki to peer out the eyepiece. It was her neighbor, the one with the newborn. How had he known that her neighbor had a newborn? With a glance at the strange man, she cracked the door.

“Yeah?”

“I was just- is that a gun?”

Kennedy glanced back to her hand, realizing that she’d let her hand drift into the crack of the door. Twisting, she thumbed the safety on while setting the gun on the small table by the door.

“No, that was one of my nephew’s airsoft guns. I found it when I was cleaning. Completely harmless,” Kennedy replied quickly, glancing over her shoulder at where Loki was standing.

Her neighbor looked at her for a minute before giving a slight shrug. “I was just wondering if you have some extra batteries or a few candles that I might borrow?”

“One moment, I’d let you inside but I’ve been cleaning and my dog has made a mess of things as well.”

Ducking back inside, Kennedy pushed the door almost completely shut. She snatched the gun from the table, thumbing the safety back off and redirecting it in Loki’s direction. She made her way to where the bags were and crouched, eyes leaving his tall figure as she dug around in the bag.

On the bed, she could see where Ghost, her Rottweiler, was still standing with his lips drawn back in Loki’s direction. Every so often a low growl would rumble from his throat in warning. Loki didn’t even give the dog so much as a glance.

Kennedy set the gun back down on the end table as she reached the door again. She felt naked without the gun and even more so as she stepped out of the studio and into the hall. The woman was still standing there, her eyes glancing down two doors to where her baby was undoubtedly waiting on her.

“Call if you need anything,” Kennedy said as there was a snarl and a loud curse from inside the apartment.

Turning on her heel, she darted back inside the apartment. She grabbed the gun as she did, her finger taught against the trigger. But she didn’t pull it because she didn’t hear the steel door clang shut.

“What’s going on in here?”

Kennedy turned slightly, her mismatched eyes flicking between Loki, Ghost and her neighbor. The Rottweiler was crouched just a few feet away from Loki, teeth bared. Loki’s green eyes rose from checking the sleeve of his arm to meet Kennedy’s neighbor’s eyes. Her neighbor was looking at the three of them in bewilderment.

“Just a meeting of old friends, my dear,” Loki smiled. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

The woman blinked, her gaze loosing focus for a moment before she looked over at Kennedy. Her eyes were curiously blank, as if there was nothing inside of her. It was unnerving.

“Enjoy your friend, Kennedy. I’ll call if I need anything.”

And, just like that, she left. The moment the steel door shut, Kennedy turned back to Loki. He was smiling, green eyes glimmering as he turned his head and looked at her.

“You’ll find that I can be very persuasive, if you want to retry that call,” Loki smiled.

In response, Kennedy squeezed her finger tight against the trigger three times in rapid succession. She lowered the gun slightly, her one green and one hazel eye staring at Loki, as the sound bullets pinging against the ground reached her ears. Loki raised an eyebrow in her direction, smirking ever so lightly and mockingly.

“Satisfied?”